What You Need to Know Before Starting a Podcast for Your Brand
I had a chance to talk to UK's Ané Auret about her business as a Dating Coach and her podcast, The Ready for Love Podcast. Keep reading for some of her insights on the do's and don'ts before starting up your own podcast!
Award-winning Dating & Relationship Coach Ané Auret specializes in helping strong, smart and driven women to clear the obstacles that are keeping them from meeting, and keeping their match. Since rebuilding her own life after divorce and now happily married again, Ané is passionate about supporting women in realizing their own worth, reconnecting to their authentic, feminine power and attracting a relationship-ready soulmate. Through her exclusive coaching programmes and tailor-made mentoring, she will be by your side every step of the way on your unique path to find love again. Ané was awarded the Dating Expert of the Year Award at the prestigious UK Dating Awards in 2017 and hosts The Ready for Love Podcast on iTunes.
1. What inspired you to become a dating coach, and how long have you been doing it for?
Many years ago I trained as a Social Worker and I’ve worked with women, children and families in a Child Protection capacity for about 14 years.
For so long I observed dysfunctional relationships and how it impacted families, and unfortunately my own parents’ less than ideal relationship also impacted heavily on me. I’ve always been interested in the questions around how we choose who we love, who we are attracted to and why we stay in relationships, even if they’re toxic and not good for us (which I've done myself). I’ve also always loved Coaching as a modality and after I left Child Protection about 3 and a half years ago I knew I wanted to work with single women and help and support them to make the best possible relationship choices for themselves. Since then my coaching business has gone from strength to strength.
2. You also have a podcast called, The Ready for Love Podcast. Do you feel podcasting has helped your brand? If so, how and why?
My Podcast is one of the favourite parts of my business. It has absolutely helped my brand for the following reasons:
Creating and bringing unique and valuable content and advice to my growing community.
Creating amazing connections and friendships with colleagues and peers in the industry.
Giving me a certain level of credibility in terms of my network, especially early on while I was still establishing myself, but this is definitely an ingoing factor.
Helping to expand my reach because my guests also promote our episodes to their communities.
Finding my voice in terms of my business and my brand.
3. Do you think podcasting helps create credibility for brands, and do you recommend brands to have their own as well?
I’d recommend podcasting in a heartbeat - but only if it’s the right thing for you as a person (personally and professionally), and the right time for you and your business.
There are a few ways you can go about this:
You can start very early on without much of a following and start building your brand and podcast that way or you can work on growing and developing your brand, following and community and then launch your podcast to a much larger captive audience of people who are already familiar with you and your content.
I went for the first option – and while I was only in the New & Noteworthy section for a week, my show was too small to make waves in the charts. I don’t have any regrets about the way I’ve gone about it though because it’s been an integral part of my business and it’s growing. It is a massive commitment, especially early on when you have so much to do and focus on, so do consider it very carefully and have a very clear plan as to how you will build and maintain momentum once you’ve started.
4. What have been your favourite parts of being a podcaster? What have been the challenges?
My favourite thing about my podcast is the opportunity to interview my guests and learn from their experiences and wisdom. I always learn something new from every interview – and this then gives me the opportunity to bring that to my community.
My other favourite thing is getting comments and emails from listeners about episodes and sharing their thoughts, transformation and a-ha moments. I've even had a wedding that was credited to listening to many episodes of The Ready for Love Podcast.
5. Any tips for someone looking to start their own podcast?
You will develop your style and confidence over time – try different things to see what really works and what resonates with your audience.
Also, make sure you choose a name for your podcast that will be able to grow, expand and accommodate your core business long term. My core business is Love – and I struggled for weeks to decide on the final title. It seems simple on the surface, but it’s a really important process to go through as it helps you to figure out what’s important and what the real purpose of your show is.
Do's
Be very clear as to why you’re doing your Podcast – what is the purpose of it and who are you doing it for? When I do an episode on my own I imagine speaking to just one person and that’s who I always have in mind.
Do repurpose your content – adding show notes to your website is like adding a blog post to your site and it really helps building your credibility and consistently adding new content to your site. It also helps with SEO because it’s regular, original content. You can then also use your podcast episodes for quote images, upload to Youtube, share on Instagram stories etc.
If you interview guests, make sure you do your research on them properly and really find out whether their approach and key messages are aligned with yours and your brand.
Always do a pre-call with a potential guest to discuss a few interview angles and to give you both the opportunity to build rapport and connect before your interview. I’ve found that this opens up an interview and you can both be much more relaxed and go just that bit deeper on the questions and conversation.
Before you launch, record and prepare about 5 episodes so you can upload at least 3 to your feed and have a few ready to go while you find your feet in the first weeks.
Be very clear what you want out of mutual promotional opportunities and help your guests to make it as easy as possible to promote an episode by providing links and images for them.
Block chunks of time out of [your] diary [or calendar] for interviews and batch your recordings and show note creation times, otherwise you’ll find yourself constantly thinking about your podcast. For example, book two days a month and use one day to record 4 interviews/solo episodes and another day to create/record introduction and show notes. Super important for time management, sanity and staying creative.
HAVE FUN with it!
Don'ts
Depending on your skill set, what stage you are at in your business and your time - don’t try and do everything yourself. Something I should’ve done a lot earlier on is to get help from a Virtual Assistant to help me with images and managing the workflow around processing and promoting each podcast. It’s never too early to get help, even if you’re just starting out. This will help you with consistency and accountability when other areas of your business is pulling you away.
Don’t over-prepare with a set list of questions and rehearsed answers.
Don’t underestimate the amount of work involved in delivering a weekly podcast. Make sure you’ve set out every single task in the workflow around the whole process – from finding and researching guests all the way through to interviewing and then sending them the final confirmation of the publication and a big thank you. The more you do it the easier it gets.
To follow and keep up-to-date with Ané Auret, check out her links below!
